Earlier this week Governor Rick Snyder signed off on a new workers compensation laws in order to repay the federal government $3 billion it owes in unemployment benefits.

However, many are criticizing the new legislation. Unemployed workers who are receiving workers compensation have only 10 weeks to find a job, even if it pays lower than their previous job and is outside their previous experience. If they decide not to take a job after 10 weeks, they could lose their benefits. This provision will make it harder for unemployed workers to collect benefits if they quit or are fired.

The only professions exempt from the new law are firefighters and law enforcement.

A man has received probation after pleading guilty to workers’ compensation fraud and filing a false report.

The 28 year-old paramedic shot himself in January but said that a man wearing a lime green jacket with NASCAR badges on it shot him. While the shooting was under investigation, the man broke down and admitted he made the story up and the wound was self-inflicted.

A judge has sentenced him to thirty-six months probation for workers’ compensation fraud and one year for filing a false report, both will be served concurrently.

A former construction worker is suing his employer for $10 million after he lost his leg in a car accident that occurred while on the job. The man says his boss was negligent as she was driving a pickup truck and ran over him.

While his boss has taken sole responsibility for the accident and agreed that he should be awarded workers’ compensation for the accident, she believes that his compensation should be capped at $50,000 by law. The man claims he was not covered by workers’ compensation insurance and so no limit should be imposed.

He is seeking the $10 million in lost income, the extent of his injuries, medical expenses, unpaid overtime, and his wife’s emotional distress.

A bill currently passing through the Indiana Senate would extend the workers compensation benefits offered to the spouses of officers who were killed in the line of duty. At the present, these benefits are offered but expire after a period of nine years. The proposed law would extend the benefits to continue until the spouse remarries or passes away.

Supporters of the bill say that it is a small way to thank and support the families of police officers for the sacrifices they are forced to make. However, opponents say the bill would put an unfair burden on local governments, who would be to pay the benefits without state funding.

The Senate labor committee passed the bill with an 8-2 vote on Wednesday, and now the bill faces a vote from the entire house.

On Tuesday, the Montana house approved a bill that bans illegal immigrants from receiving workers’ compensation. The bill was approved in an initial 60-40 vote, and will face one more vote on Wednesday before being sent to the Senate.

Proponents of the bill say that it will help the state’s problem with high workers’ comp costs. However, opponents said that workers, whether legal or illegal, will still inenvitably be injured on the job and the costs will be transferred to emergency departments of hospitals. These costs, in turn, are shifted to taxpayesr and insurance companies. Additionally, opponents add that companies that hire illegal workers, even accidentally, may face large lawsuits if insurance companies do not pay for their workers comp claims, and businesses may go under.

Despite heavy lobbying by union leaders, doctors, and lawyers, new legislation has passed the Illinois House which makes significant changes to workers’ compensation plans. The new legislation says that:

Workers’ comp benefits would be capped either at age 67 or at five years after the injury

Injured workers must first visit a doctor chosen by employers, rather than a doctor of their own choice

Supporters say that the changes will reduce medical fee expenses for employers by up to 15 percent, but opponents say that the legislation is far below the minimum needs of workers. Another bill is currently in the works to reduce the number of state employees who are allowed to unionize.

An Arkansas woman who slipped and broke her arm during a cigarette break at work has been awarded workers’ compensation benefits after taking her case all the way to the state’s Supreme Court.

Originally, the woman was was told that workers’ comp would be awarded for her injures. However, this decision was later appealed when it was challenged that she was taking a personal break and was not performing employment services when she was injured.

The Arkansas Supreme Court later affirmed the original decision of the Workers’ Compensation Commision by ruling that, since at the time of the injury the woman was waiting to pick up her paycheck as required by her employer, she was indeed performing employment services.

The Arkansas Supreme Court this week ruled in favor or a Little Rock nursing assistant who was injured in a fall while on the job, ruling that she is eligible for workers compensation benefits.

According to court documents, in October 2008 the woman was returning to a mandatory work meeting after a cigarette break when she fell and fractured her left arm.

After she filed a workers compensation claim seeking medical and temporary total disability benefits, her employer rejected her claim. She then took them to local court, where an administrative law judge ruled in the woman’s favor.

The case was then appealed by the company, and an appeals court overturned this ruling. The woman then appealed her case to the Supreme Court where the original ruling was upheld.

John Kasich, the newly elected Gov. of Ohio, is expected to name state Sen. Stephen P. Buehrer to the position of administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation.

Kasich has a morning press conference scheduled at the Fulton County Courthouse in Wauseon, where it is expected that he will announce Buehrer as the fifth confirmed member of his cabinet.

The 43-year-old Senator has been a member of the Senate since 2007 and also served as a member of the Ohio House from 1999-2006. He is currently chairman of the Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee, which handles injured worker claims.